The race hopes to improve on its 2018 four-day crowd of 295,000 next year.

Vettel leads Hamilton by one point after nine of 21 races thanks to the Briton's misfortune in Austria. "Immediately after the race, as soon as they got the vehicle back, I think that evening there was a fix that..."

The Austrian penalty was imposed despite both Vettel and Sainz progressing to the final phase of qualifying without any difficulty.

"I just think all these things are unnecessary, because sometimes.it's not that you lose your mind or you do something insane because you intend to, but you try to push the limits and sometimes you might make a mistake". At this point, the virtual safety vehicle was deployed.

"Some of them, for sure, are easier than others. Historically it has not been a very strong track for us".

Having been resurfaced in February of this year, Pirelli have reacted to the strenuous demands of the grippy British Grand Prix track by bringing their hardest tyre compound selection for any race this season to Silverstone, including the new, ice blue-walled hard tyre. Hamilton insisted that they should have won the race.

Immediately, both Ferrari and Red Bull responded with double pit-stops for their drivers while Mercedes left Hamilton out - a tactical oversight that was to prove costly.

"I do really feel like I have the best strategy team behind me. It's how the sport should be in a sense, that you're squeezing more out of the cars and out of the drivers as well so I think it's not a bad thing". We've had far, far more success than we've had failures and nobody is flawless. I hope it is not a title decider, but I can't predict what is happening going forward. Carlos said it was no problem and he completely understood, he was very chilled, and I still ended up with a penalty. His was the lone McLaren at the end of the race, with team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne registering a DNF.

"It would be great to take the lead back from Seb here, but I am really grateful to be in a position to fight for a win at Silverstone for a sixth time".